Up and Down Peachtree
Photographs of Atlanta
Martin Parr
Contrasto
Hardcover
180 pages
220×280 mm
2012
ISBN: 978-8-86965-3322
This extraordinary volume presents an original and comprehensive treatment of Martin Parr’s images of Atlanta taken over the past year. This work represents a singular contribution to photography and is in a style all its own.
In this book–and for the first time ever–Martin Parr presents a complete photographic collection of his work done in USA. The target of his American journey is Atlanta, Georgia, the symbolic capital of the American South, made famous by the film Gone With the Wind and by the Southern Gothic novel, home to the great Martin Luther King Jr. and to the Coca-Cola Company. This is where Parr casts his infallible gaze, and where, from among the continual flux of life, he extracts those details, colours, forms, and gestures that tell of a general mood and a modern way of life that make us laugh and despair at the same time.
The title of the book is taken from Atlanta’s main thoroughfare, Peachtree Street, around which the city was born and grew. The street is a landmark to people from the city, and in fact it was here that Margaret Mitchell wrote Gone With the Wind.
Martin Parr’s gaze is caustic and implacable, teeming with wit, intelligence, and a playful touch of irony. This is the signature style of a photographer whose visual stories of the white middle class and their vices, customs, and bad taste tell of the “common sense” of our time. Acclaimed around the world, the artist is one of the most exemplary members of the prestigious Magnum Photos.
Martin Parr was born in Epsom, Surrey, UK, in 1952.
www.martinparr.com
Contrasto Books is an Italian publisher, concentrating on photography.